Where to vacation

Yesterday we had to wish RIP to yet more victims of terror. This time it was in Morocco when a bomb tore apart the main tourist square murdering and maiming many poor unfortunates caught in the blast. 

Unfortunately, I have said it before to many people and will say it again in writing. You are possibly risking your life, and definitely your civil rights, if you visit these type of countries; Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Lybia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, TransJordan, Turkey, Lebanon, not to mention Afghanistan, Iran, Syria.......Don't go! Everyday there is another story in the press about a Westerner being kidnapped, beheaded, blown up, or simply arrested by the "honour police" in these locales for whatever crime suits their pockets at that moment. These are bad places run by bad people. 

We have seen the trend of people opting to work in these countries for excessive tax free salaries, and they supporting and promoting the ruling tyrant. When something goes wrong, these greedy immorals wail for their original countries to come and rescue them. The risk vs. reward theory works and they should abide by it. You get paid more because you are doing something risky. Crime also pays, and whilst what they may be doing is legal, it sure is not a good moral way to help these regimes survive. However, to some people that just does not matter. So, let's go back to where to vacation. 

You have a choice where to vacation. You don't need to support Fidel Castro and his execution of journalists, even if you crave affordable cigars. 

There are still a few democracies left in the world to visit and you can have a very good time. Even France and Norway qualify for this. It is true that democracies are targets for terrorists the world over, but go to a place and support democrats where the population has not sympathy for terrorist's causes. Perhaps that does actually rule out France and Norway. Go somewhere where the police don't have cadres that turn a blind eye to terrorist activities and the citizenry is not oppressed. 

Just because a place is cheap, that is no good reason to go these awful places that teem with those who don't respect human life.

Tax cuts and how to save jobs, the economy

We have an election campaign going on in Canada, although hard to notice because it is low-key and thus a very Canadian election. There has been some "outrage" expressed at possible corporate tax cuts included in one party's manifesto. I am not much of an economist even though I have an economics degree and instinctively, I also recoiled from the prospect of corporate tax cuts which would appear to make big companies richer. Then I thought a little more deeply about the Canadian $ surging high against foreign currencies and especially against the value of our biggest trade partner, the US. In simple terms, which is what best suits me, I concluded that a good way to maintain competition and therefore maintain employment for large numbers of Canadians, is for corporate tax cuts to counter-balance the increased cost of our products beyond our borders.

Having seen the economic devastation being brought to the US by continuing inane policies of Obama pouring fuel on a fire, and the fall of the UK economy to such a level that some cities are planning to light only half their street lamps, the conservative Canadian approach has kept us relatively safe in the past few years. Feels wrong to say it, yet these tax cuts may yet save many of our jobs.